Do you need an independent insurance agent for Medicare?
If so, how can you tell of that the independent insurance agent has your best interests in mind
and isn't just showing you the products with the highest commission to pad his or her pocket?
In this video I will reveal important insights that you can use to help determine if the
independent Medicare agent that your consulting as your best interests in mind
or are they keeping important information from you?
Are they more concerned with their commissions than your best interest?
It happens more often than you think. Hi, I am Matthew Claassen with MedigapSeminars.org
I've been helping seniors of their retirement decisions since 1984. Most people I talk to about Medicare are shocked when they learn
of the insights that I'm gonna share with you in this video. You'll learn the advantages of working with an
independent Medicare Insurance broker and how to tellif that person has your best interest in mind.
Independent Medicare insurance broker offering Medicare supplement plans nearby. Independent Medicare insurance agent.
Before we get into today's video you should know that whether you're new to Medicare
and trying to research your options, or you've had Medicare for a while and you have questions
my website, MedigapSeminars.org is where you'll find the answer.
I created an entire library of videos about different subjects within Medicare to help you understand
the information that you need to know. You can get those directly on my website at MedigapSeminars.org
or an easy way is to just press my Subscribe button below go to my YouTube channel and you'll
find them all under different titles for playlist like All You Need to Know About Medicare or
New to Medicare. These videos can take you from the the very basics of Medicare to the
important details of each different Medicare choice.
The objective is to help you learn what you need to know to make an informed decision about your Medicare choices.
So visit the website, MedigapSeminars.org. Or for a quick access just subscribe to this video.
You're subscribing to my channel, and you can access them through there.
Several years ago I wrote an article for my website entitled; Do I need an Insurance Agent for Medicare?
Little did I know at the time that that would become one of the most popular articles I've ever written.
It has been read literally by tens of thousands of people in each and every state of the country.
People want to know if it's safe to do it yourself with Medicare, or eight least to understand the
risks that they face if they decide to go it alone. Learning Medicare can be, well, no easy task.
You have to learn the different terminology's used within the Health Insurance
You have to learn the names of all the different types of the Medicare plans, descriptively title that A, B, C and D.
Medicare offers a decent reference guide in their Medicare & You guidebook or in their Choosing a Medigap Policy. But no real how to.
And unfortunately some of that information is actually skewed toward the types of policies that are more the government's best interest
than yours. You can top all this off with the realization that you can make a mistake!
And you won't know that you've made a mistake until it's too late. In most cases you won't know that you've made a mistake
until it is too late to fix it.
So to answer that question posed the beginning of this video; do you need an insurance agent or broker for your Medicare?
The short answer is "No".
You can do this all on your own.
But the advice and guidance that you receive from an experienced independent insurance agent can be invaluable.
And it cost you nothing. Our service is free to you because we are paid by the insurance company that you choose to work with.
But here's the catch.
When it comes to something as complex as your Medicare
most of us want help. Most people want help with their insurance. Heck, I want help with
simpler things like; where to go for dinner, or what clothes to wear.
All of us want help when we're dealing with things that are as complex as Medicare.
But none of us want to feel like we've been sold something.
There's a huge difference between working with someone who is trying to help you find the right plan for your needs and your budget
vs. somebody who is trying to sell you something.
None of us wanna walk away from a transaction wondering if we just purchased what was in our best interests, or in the
or in the salespersons.
So with that in mind here's what you need to know. Here's the knowledge that you need to arm yourself with, so that you will know and
have confidence that the person you're working where has your best interest in mind.
First; specializing in Medicare is tough.
Unlike other Insurance products, like Life Insurance or annuities
those products have high upfront commission payouts.
One or two product sales can help pay your bills for a month.
Medicare Products, however, will pay commissions typically spread out over a 6 to 10 year period.
Because of this most people trying to specialize in Medicare simply can't wait that long, waiting for those commissions to build up.
Think about that for a minute. Some insurance agents in this business only work part time. They tell you they are career agents but
they have another job and work with Medicare Insurance part time.
I am going to show you how to tell if that's the case here in a moment.
Also some might actually be in insurance fulltime, but their specialty is in other products.
Their Medicare is a side job to the true focus of their business.
Either scenario can be an issue with you, the consumer, because you need an insurance agent that specializes in Medicare.
You want someone that has the in-depth knowledge and experience to offer good advice.
You don't need a jack-of-all-trades and expert of none. So what should you do? Here are the first three things that you should do before you
have an in-depth conversation with an agent about your Medicare needs.
First, check out their website. Is Medicare just a small portion and they sell Life Insurance, annuities, Social Security retirement ?
Is Medicare a small portion? Are they a jack-of-all-trades?
Second, does the insurance agent even have a website? That should be a real warning sign if they don't. Or, are they communicating
to you with email that's so-and-so @gmail.com, or so-an-so's insurance company incorporated@yahoo?
If they are not using an e-mail this specific with their business name
that's a clear indication that they are not fully engaged in Medicare, they're probably working part time.
The first thing that insurance professional who is focusing on Medicare is going to do is
of-course set up a web site and get their e-mail which is associated with their business name.
Third, you might get a sense you are working with a part-time agent if they can only return your calls after hours. You call them during the
day either get a quick message that I'll call you back after six
or you just simply can't get in touch with them during regular business hours, but they seem to be available in the evenings or on weekends.
That's often a clear sign that you're working with someone who is in insurance part-time and has another job that's earning a living on a
fulltime basis. This is more common than most people realize. And a lot of these cases from the clients I have
talked to; it's their gut feeling that they follow, their gut told them something was wrong.
I believe strongly that you should follow your gut feelings. Follow your instincts on this.
Now you have a good idea how you can tell if an agent is part time or fulltime,
but how can you tell if they have your best interest in mind? Here again are four things that you should know and
Number 1 here is going to be crucial. But the most important "tell" is the fourth one here on this list. It is the one that most people
new to Medicare will totally miss. First, when you check out the agents website take a look at
what's on there. The first thing a person who specializes in Medicare is going to know and understand is that the most important
thing that a person new to Medicare needs is they want to learn about Medicare so that they can make the right choice!
Having just a few generic paragraphs on "What is Medicare A and Medicare B" may be more of an indication that you're dealing with
someone who is more interested in what they're getting out a transaction than really
helping you to make sure that you have the information you need
to make an informed decision. It also takes a deeper understanding of the product to write articles or to do videos like this, typically.
So look at what the agent is producing.
An agent whose focus is on the needs of the client will also have a website that focuses on the needs of the client!
Second; are you dealing with an independent insurance broker or independent agent or are you dealing with what we call a captured agent?
I have and entire video on the subject of a captured agent vs. an independent agent, and you can
check that out by subscribing to this channel and get direct access to that. Here's the thing -
a person who is a captured agent is an employee of an insurance company.
They have to have their employers best interest in mind
and they can only show you Insurance Products that are offered by their employer.
No one insurance company has all the Insurance Products that are available to you. They won't have all the insurance plans
and it could be that the right insurance product for your needs and your budget isn't even offered by that company.
In addition, prices are not regulated. You can talk to somebody from Blue Cross Blue Shield
United Healthcare / AARP, Colonial or Mutual of Omaha
and get wildly different prices for the exact same plan. The benefits for supplements are standardized not for Medicare Advantage Plans
but for supplements they're standardized. They are the same from one company to another
but the prices can be wildly different. You not only need to find the right plan, but you want find the right
company that has the best price for you and the best pricing strategy over time. Considering there is probably
20 or 30 different insurance companies offering Medicare insurance plans in your area,
you'll have to talk to a lot of captured agents to get the true complete picture of all the plans that are available to you and their prices.
So working with the captured agent is a lot like working with a car salesman at an auto dealer;
the right car for you at the right price could be in the lot next door.
But that insurance agent's not going to tell you, the car salesman is not going to tell you about that car
because they can't make a living on that. They'll only tell you about what's in their lot. Or, of course you can go to an Independent Agent
and shop the entire market and one meeting. The independent Medicare insurance agent
should be working with all of the most competitive insurance companies in your area
and be able to show you all of the plans and all the prices right there in one meeting. The independent insurance agent is set up to
represent your best interest to help you find the right product for both your needs and your budget.
Third on the list of four things that you need to know is you need to make sure that there is transparency.
We make our living being pay'd a commission by the insurance company that you choose to work with.
You pay nothing.
My philosophy is whenever I am dealing with a person who is paid a commission, I wanna know what that commission is.
I want to know if there's a different commission for the different products or services they offer.
You need to have that information so that you can filter out whether or not the advice that is being given to you
is tainted by the amount of commission that they will earn. When you choose a policy based on the advice of an agent,
you want to have confidence that that's the right policy for your needs and your budget.
Not the right policy for the insurance agent and their commission. So here's what you should know about commissions; in general a
Medicare supplement policy going to pay the insurance agent about 20% to 26% of your premiums for about six years.
The commission is built into the premium. You can't get a discount by not going to insurance agents. Whether you use an agent or not, you
pay the same price. And it is based on the first year's premium level, not the price increases you may experience over that six year period.
Some states have the rules that impact the structure of the payout. But a level payout over six years is a good rule of thumb.
It's important to know though, in states where the average premium for Medicare supplement policy is higher than normal,
these are states like Florida, Washington State New York and Connecticut,
the percentage of that commission can be much a lower. But it's typically set by the
insurance company so that the level of commission,
the actual payout, is going to be about the same as a national average. I believes that at the time of this video the national average
for a Medicare supplement policy is about $210 a year for six years.
If you're paying a premium on a monthly basis then that means insurance agent is going to get paid monthly.
A policy that has a commission of $240 a year really means about $20.00 a month.
The insurance agent can get some of that up front, but it usually cost a % interest. It's like borrowing from the insurance company or
borrowing from a bank. They have pay of some of the money out of their commissions in order to get a lump sum.
At $20.00 a month per policy, a Medicare supplement agent has got to sell a lot of supplements in order to make a living.
This is important; the highest commission product in Medicare, by far, is a Medicare Advantage Plan.
The Medicare Advantage plans are typically these HMOs and PPOs and will often have
no monthly premium for you the consumer.
But the U.S. gov't steps in and pays the insurance company
between $1,200 and $1,800 a month for that product. The reason being is when you get Medicare Advantage Plan
you're giving up your Medicare to the private insurance company and the gov't then pays that private insurance company because the
government's no longer at risk financially. Its a huge amount of money. It has the highest commissions
by far, and that's also where a lot of the marketing money goes because that's where the insurance companies also make the most
money. In the original article I wrote that this video attached to, or goes to
I give even more details on this. If you click on that link to the article if you wanna find out more information and in some of the specifics
of the commissions that are earned from Medicare Advantage Plans.
Those commissions are set every year by Medicare
and they continue forever for as long as you have a Medicare Advantage Plan the age is going to get an annual sum
This brings us to item # 4. This is one of the most important "tell's". It will let you know if the insurance agent has
commissions in mind, or your best interest in mind. So what is it?
It's when the first product that they show you is a Medicare Advantage Plan. They pull out the glossy brochure and here is a
Medicare HMO or PPO. You have no monthly premium and it's a lot like the insurance plans they used to get when you're working fulltime.
Here's why this is important. Medicare Advantage plans are the highest commission product.
They pay between two and five times the commissions of a Medicare supplement.
And they pay for as long as you have to plan, not just for six years.
Medicare Advantage plans, however, or only the rite choice for 10% to 30% of Medicare consumers.
They have lower benefits than you can get with Original Medicare plus a Medicare supplement.
They require annual maintenance because they change every year.
They have a limited service area, typically only your local area.
The doctors can change, the benefits change, everything changes. And is lower insurance coverage.
The people that are typically right for Medicare Advantage plans are those that are on a very tight budget and they simply can't afford any of
the Medicare supplements that are available to them.
With the Medicare Advantage Plan they at least have a limit on the maximum annual out-of-pocket
that they can spend, or will have be obliged for if they get sick.
Lastly, and this is where you can make a permanent mistake;
You can always move from a Medicare supplement to a Medicare Advantage Plan.
Medicare supplement plans you can typically only get during your Medicare supplement initial enrollment. So in most states
that period is the first six months that you have Medicare Part B. You can get any Medicare supplement that's available to you
without medical underwriting. No medical questions. You get it at the best price available.
After those six months, if you wan to get a Medicare supplement or change Medicare supplements you have to qualify for it medically.
You have to go through medical underwriting to qualify and if you have a serious health condition or health history
they can deny your coverage. They can say no you can't get that new Medicare supplement plan. That's not the case when you go to a
Medicare Advantage Plan because Medicare Advantage plans will never have medical qualification requirements. You can always go
from a Medicare supplement to Medicare Advantage Plan. But if you have a Medicare Advantage plan and you are beyond your
and initial enrollment period for a Medicare supplement
you may not be able to get your plan. You may not be able to switch back to the higher coverage.
One special note here; there is a Medicare right a sense that if you're new to Medicare and you purchase a Medicare Advantage Plan
you have a Trial Right. It's a one-year Trial Right. If you're in your first year on Medicare you went into a Medicare Advantage Plan first
thing and you want to switch back to Medicare supplement, you can do that.
Why they have that as Medicare right? Well, because oftentimes people get into these Medicare Advantage Plan without knowing
how much they're going to have to pay for medical coverage when they need it. This allows them at least in that first year to
change their mind and go back to the higher coverage of the Medicare supplement.
But the big risk of going with the Medicare Advantage Plan when it's not the right coverage for you is that if your health condition
is such that you don't qualify for Medicare supplement outside of your Medicare supplement initial enrollment period,
you may never make that change again. You may never go back to the better coverage of the supplement.
So what's the best approach when you're researching your Medicare plans?
What's the best approach to make sure you find the right plan for you?
First is to start with the different Medicare supplement plans. Go through each of the supplements so you understand the benefits
and the costs.
If one of those supplements is right for you. it fits your budget and your needs, that's where you should go.
If you go through those and you find that the cost of the Medicare supplement is simply not what you can afford,
you are concerned that cost increases may be more than what your budget can handle,
then sit down and take a look at the Medicare Advantage Plans that are available to you.
That is how an agent that as your best interests in mind will approach Medicare and you.
So now you know. A good independent insurance agent that specializes in Medicare can be a valuable asset
in helping you learn what you need to know
to make the right decision for your budget and your needs.
But, like Medicare plans, not all the agents of the same.
Hopefully now with this video or the article below
you have enough information to choose the person that you would decide who you want to work with
and have confidence that they have your best interest in mind.
Now it's your turn. I hope you found the information this video helpful because I make these videos for you.
Please leave me a comment and let me know what you found most useful or what you might use in your Medicare searching
what is it that you like the best out of this video? I really want to here from you. It's important and will help me to make better
videos for you in the future.
Also please don't forget to press the LIKE button. When you press the LIKE button on the video you are signaling to YouTube
when people have the questions that you had about Medicare
you want them to see this video too. If you found this video is important, if you found it helpful
press the LIKE button. Share it on your social media.
All of that helps other people find this video as well.
I hope you found it helpful. I am Matthew Claassen with MedigapSeminars.org
Thank you for watching.
Independent Medicare insurance agent. Medicare insurance broker. Independent insurance broker. Medicare insurance broker.
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